Hot Topics:

At Naropa, Chödrön implores grads to 'fail, fail again, fail better'

About 300 earned degrees from Buddhist-inspired university, now in its 40th year

By Alex Burness

Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
05/10/2014 08:24:14 PM MDT

Updated:
05/10/2014 10:01:40 PM MDT

In her keynote address at Naropa University's commencement Saturday, Pema Chödrön, one of the most influential figures in American Buddhism, offered the sold-out Macky Auditorium a spiritual spin on a classic graduation-day refrain.

"Fail, fail again and fail better," she implored the students, quoting Samuel Beckett.

"It's how to get good at holding the rawness of vulnerability in your heart, how to get good at welcoming the unwelcome."

In its 40th year of existence, Boulder's Buddhist-inspired university is celebrating roughly 300 graduates, about two-thirds of whom have earned master's degrees.

Before they headed off, Chödrön urged them not get caught up in defining success and failure, but rather to find chances for growth in life's ups and downs.

"It's a little hard to tell, actually, what's a failure and what's something that's just shifted in your life in a new direction," she said.

"This teaching on 'fail, fail again, fail better' could come in really handy when you begin to feel knocked down by these great big waves," Chödrön added.

Chödrön, the first American woman to achieve full ordination as a Buddhist nun, kept things casual throughout — even offering the music of Beyonce as a possible source of inspiration for students looking to gain strength from defeat.

"She puts it all out there, and you figure she must know what it feels like," said Chödrön, whose address was seen by more than 10,000 people internationally via live webcast, according to Naropa officials.

Advertisement

In her own remarks, psychology professor Deborah Bowman, the faculty speaker, echoed Chödrön's message of resilience and mining a productive lesson out of each failure.

"We learn by sharing our stories of heartbreak and discovery, of being comatose and waking up," she said, adding that, "In this great world, there is nowhere that is not a wisdom hall."

Naropa, with concentrations in off-the-beaten-path areas of study, such as somatic psychology, wilderness therapy and peace studies, specializes in "contemplative education," which the university defines as being "built upon engaging the whole person in the learning journey."

That approach, undergraduate student speaker Elizabeth Rich said, helps cultivates students' hearts as much as it does their minds.

"The world needs more people who are empathetic, who know themselves," she told the crowd. "At Naropa, I learned to go within myself . . .I went deeper, and it's like mining for gold."

Chödrön heaped praise on the school's contemplative model, and said it would serve the graduates well. But she didn't promise it'd be easy.

"There's a lot of emphasis on succeeding. Whether we buy the hype or not, we all kind of want to succeed," Chödrön said.

"We think of failure as something that happens to us. We either blame it on somebody else or some other organization — our boss, our partner, whatever," she added. "Sometimes you experience it as heartbreak or disappointment. Sometimes it's rage. But failure or things not working out doesn't feel good. At that time, maybe instead of doing the habitual thing of labeling yourself a failure or a loser, you could get curious about what's going on."

Charles Lief, Naropa's president, offered a similar piece of advice, albeit in much different language.

"In the garden of gentle sanity," he said, quoting an old Buddhist teaching, "may you be bombarded with the coconuts of wakefulness."

Naropa University commencement speaker, Ani Pema Chodron, left, hugs her granddaughter, Alexandria Bull, after she received her degree on Saturday. Chodron agreed to be the speaker if her granddaughter graduated. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story